Saturn's Moon Prometheus Spawning Moonlets

astroengine writes "For the first time ever, astronomers have witnessed the formation of celestial objects... in Saturn's rings. As the Saturnian moon Prometheus dashes through the gas giant's rings, it leaves large formations of ice behind, some as large as 12 kilometers in diameter. When the small moon makes another pass, it is not known whether these giant 'snowballs' remain or get destroyed, but according to Linda Spilker, from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory: 'You can think of Saturn's rings as miniature versions of the disks where planets form. The same physical processes are occurring.'" The Planetary Society blog has further explanation, as well as pictures and a movie of Prometheus' interaction with Saturn's rings. The Cassini team has released some fantastic images of the fans and clumps in the F ring, as well as a simulation showing how the ring's particles are affected by the moon's passing.

Comments

That's no moonlet.

[grub]

It's a space stationlet.

.

Fuel for space probe or spaceship?

[assemblerex]

Couldn't a space ship or probe come by and pick up one of the "small" moonlets and use it for fuel? 12KM of pre-frozen volatile organic matter sounds like a great windfall if you ask me.

Re:Fuel for space probe or spaceship?

[Monkeedude1212]

When we're at the stage that we can land on these kinds of objects (The Japs have managed to get one of their probes to 'land' or 'dock' with an asteroid I think) - then we've got the problems that come with efficiently harvesting and refining the materials.

Don't get me wrong, I think the idea has merrit, but we haven't reached that stage of the game yet. We would still need to probe it extensively - see how much of it is usable, recreate the conditions it occurs in to engineer a way to refine it, then make an efficient way to build that into a ship or probe such that it's more efficient to have it refuel at these moonlets as opposed to just extra fuel from the start.

Stealing the power of the gods again...

[Drakkenmensch]

... to create moonlets. This time he's getting lots more eaten by the eagle than just his liver.

One can only imagine the wonders...

[Anonymous Coward]

...coming out of Uranus.

Kilometers vs. miles

[need4mospd]

Summary says 12 kilometers, article says 12 miles in diameter. Is it really that hard to get right? You could always say it's 3,862,425,600,000 beard seconds in diameter...

Re:Kilometers vs. miles

[Anonymous Coward]

Beard seconds are obviously based on Chuck Norris's beard.

Re:Kilometers vs. miles

[Wraithlyn]

Can God create a question so complex that even he cannot answer it?

Can Chuck Norris grow a beard so tough that even he cannot shave it?

(Personally I think he roundhouse kicks himself in the beard. Nothing can withstand that)

Katamari?

[Flea of Pain]

Am I the only one who pictured something to do with Katamari in regards to flying through the rings forming larger objects?

Crappy summary

[northernfrights]

Should have included this bit from the article:

"Over time, the disrupted particles -- mostly dense, sticky ice -- can take on a life of their own, clumping together under their own growing gravitational force."

The summary only talks about celestial objects destroying each other, then simply states that scientists are witnessing the "creation" of objects. We've seen stuff smash together all the time. The subject matter at hand is what happens afterward.

NASA tradition

[Conchobair]

Maybe it's just following in the NASA tradition.